CBI urges shift to nuclear from wind power

Labour's energy policy is weakening the country's energy security and making it harder to cut carbon dioxide emissions because of an excessive reliance on wind power, the CBI will say this morning.

In a study of Britain's energy supplies published in advance of the government's latest plans for tackling the threat of climate change, which will be set out on Wednesday, the employers' organisation has urged a shift of strategy away from wind in favour of nuclear power.

John Cridland, the CBI's deputy director-general, said: "The government is pitching too high on what they are claiming can be obtained from wind, [which] will crowd out other low-carbon energy sources." He said that it could give Britain "the most volatile energy prices in Europe".

The CBI says it accepts the need for a steep increase in wind power but would set a lower limit on that expansion than the government.

With "business as usual" policies, it warns, Britain will see rapid growth both in wind power and in new gas-fired power stations - needed when the wind is not blowing.

That will make the country more dependent on imported gas, from Russia and elsewhere, more exposed to volatile commodity prices, and less able to cut the CO 2 emissions produced by burning fossil fuels.

Instead, the CBI wants more help for investment in new nuclear reactors and "clean coal" power stations that can capture and store emissions.

The jump from needing gas-fire power plants to actually needing lots of gas is made unconsciously, but is completely wrong.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes